May 20, 2019 |
October 11, 2017 |
Mitigating Supply Chain Risk: What the Military Does and You Should Too
Militaries around the world have been trying to introduce commercial best practices to the way they do business for many years. However, the commercial industry may be able to learn a trick or two from the military as well, particularly with respect to risk in their supply chains. Since at least the time of Alexander the Great, military leaders have understood the importance of logistics and a resilient supply chain... Read More
September 27, 2017 |
World Record Tied: Transportation Optimization in Supply Chain Guru X
Earlier this summer LLamasoft launched Supply Chain Guru X, a completely new supply chain design software application. We’re proud of this new generation of our flagship product, combining the best of the best supply chain optimization technologies, with exhaustive rounds of user-feedback to offer the best solution to meet needs and objectives. As part of this latest version, we’ve also made significant improvements to our transportation optimization solving technologies. Here... Read More
September 6, 2017 |
Get in the Game for Supply Chain Learning
A Multi-Dimensional Supply Chain Challenge Much has been written about the generational change happening in the supply chain industry as baby-boomers pass the baton to the next generation of supply chain practitioners—Gen X, Y and Millennials. But when you overlay the generational shift against the equally formidable task of balancing supply chain metrics in systems with increasingly nonlinear relationships, the challenge can seem overwhelming. Businesses are struggling to effectively package... Read More
August 23, 2017 |
Amazon and Whole Foods: Four Keys to Combat Changing Grocery Landscape
The news of Amazon’s planned acquisition of Whole Foods in June caused quite a stir for the grocery industry. Amazon’s traction and reach only continues to expand and grocers are seeking new ways to keep the pace and remain in-the-game in an increasingly competitive marketplace. Couple that with the rapid expansion of direct-to-door services like subscription-based meal kits and the grocery industry is on an innovation track set at lightning... Read More
August 9, 2017 |
UAVs in Supply Chain: Designing for Today and Tomorrow
As part of this year’s SummerCon conference, the LLamasoft Global Impact Team hosted a half-day, interactive workshop to bring together 30 supply chain professionals to discuss the use of unmanned aviation vehicles (UAVs) in today’s supply chain landscape. LLamasoft built upon its position as a supply chain thought-leader and convener of conversations to bring together customers and partners to discuss the potential of this exciting new technology. Participants represented a... Read More
July 26, 2017 |
The All New Supply Chain Guru
We’re excited about the upcoming launch of the entirely new Supply Chain Guru X – an incredibly intuitive and powerful supply chain design software. We’ve combined the best of multiple modeling applications to bring you a completely re-designed supply chain design platform that solves more problems and enables powerful visualization of your supply chain. What’s Awesome About Supply Chain Guru X? New Solving Capabilities: Detailed end-to-end financial, cost and process... Read More
July 11, 2017 |
Investigate and Predict Demand: Five Reasons you Need to Consider Demand Modeling as part of your Supply Chain Design Process
Can you confidently predict your future customer demand? How does your business and external factors such as economic indicators and weather influence that demand across different time horizons (short, medium and long-term)? How might that information help improve the design of your future supply chain to better account for the changing demand? In today’s demand-driven marketplace, it’s more critical than ever to understand your customers’ buying behavior as well as... Read More
June 28, 2017 |
SummerCon 2017 Trip Report
LLamasoft was thrilled to welcome nearly 500 customers and partners (not to mention 150+ LLamas!) to Detroit for our seventh annual SummerCon user conference June 12-16. There was a wealth of great content and learnings over the week-long event. Here are just a few highlights. Keynotes In his kick-off address LLamasoft CEO and President Don Hicks encouraged attendees to “think hard” – outside the parameters of the status quo today.... Read More
June 22, 2017 |
Twenty-Three of the Gartner Top 25 Supply Chains for 2017 Have Modeled with LLamasoft Technology
Every spring at the Gartner North American Supply Chain Executive Conference, Gartner releases their Supply Chain Top 25 report*. This annual report, now it’s 13th year, acknowledges the top supply chains on a number of criteria. According to the report, two key aspects of the Supply Chain Top 25 ranking are the demonstration of demand-driven leadership and corporate social responsibility (CSR). For the last 5 years, the number of companies... Read More
June 20, 2017 |
SummerCon 2017 Recap: Think Like a Designer, Collaborate with Compassion
Last week supply chain leaders and designers gathered in Detroit, the Motor City, for LLamasoft’s SummerCon 2017 to exchange ideas and insights about supply chain design. The conference keynotes featured renowned speakers from all walks of life – from music, to public policy, to magic, to social science, and of course, supply chain and logistics. The keynote speakers and session presenters talked about qualities of successful modern leaders in our... Read More
June 2, 2017 |
Make the Most of Your Time at SummerCon 2017
Our seventh annual SummerCon conference opens in just over a week in downtown Detroit! We look forward to welcoming hundreds of our valued customers and partners for a week of learning, networking and fun. We’re proud of the community of supply chain professionals we’ve been able to cultivate at LLamasoft and look forward to coming together yet again. But before making your way to the Motor City, we want to... Read More
May 9, 2017 |
A Letter from Don Hicks: LLamasoft Announces Partnership with TPG Capital
As many of you are aware, there are big things on the horizon for LLamasoft in 2017 and we can’t wait to share more info and celebrate with several hundred of our customers and stakeholders next month at our SummerCon conference in Detroit. Very soon we’ll be launching the next generation of our flagship supply chain design offering, Supply Chain Guru, a product years in the making that will help make... Read More
May 4, 2017 |
Tips to Overcome Capacity Planning Challenges
In my role at LLamasoft, I travel the country, and occasionally the globe, helping customers with their toughest supply chain challenges. And at some point, any company that produces goods is going to face the challenge of looking for a better way to manage their capacity. In the past that may have resulted in an annual project to get a look at their current capacity levels and make some adjustments... Read More
April 19, 2017 |
Dedicated Fleets: To Use or Not to Use
Managing the balance between cost and service is a pervasive challenge for nearly every supply chain professional when managing their transportation strategy. Pair that with an increasingly competitive marketplace and determining the right approach is formidable. Nearly every organization requires or at least considers outsourcing some of their transportation needs at one point of another, but what are some of benefits or considerations when opting to use private, or dedicated,... Read More
April 4, 2017 |
Access On-Demand Warehousing Solutions to Augment Short-Term Distribution Network Strategies
*This is a guest post by Karl Siebrecht, co-founder and CEO of FLEXE. Business is changing at unprecedented speed. Technology is evolving, customer demands are increasing, and staying competitive comes down to how well you manage both. Your supply chain plays a big part in the success of your business. Visibility into operations and being able to leverage real-time data to make smarter decisions is paramount. But, inventory fluctuates. That’s a... Read More
March 29, 2017 |
Is Your Supply Chain Thoughtfully Designed, or an Afterthought?
*This post was originally featured on the FLEXE blog.* Many of the world’s best known companies’ supply chains grew from a series of historical accidents rather than intentional design. Because of this, a simple activity like mapping and visualizing supply chain flows can often spark critical questions such as, “Why are materials sourced from Region A, produced in Region B, then air-shipped as finished product back to Region A?” By... Read More
March 15, 2017 |
Supply Chain Visibility with Supply Chain Matters
LLamasoft recently collaborated with Bob Ferrari of the Ferrari Group on his blog, Supply Chain Matters, to explore the topic of supply chain visibility. This term, supply chain visibility, is used in a whole host of contexts meaning many different things depending on whom is speaking. In this four-part series with Supply Chain Matters, Ferrari outlined the LLamasoft take on supply chain visibility and how global businesses are leveraging the... Read More
February 22, 2017 |
Trip Report: Second Annual LLamasoft Tokyo Supply Chain Design Conference
The LLamasoft team in Japan was thrilled to host our second annual Supply Chain Design Conference at our headquarters in Tokyo on February 15. (You can read more about last year’s event here.) Nearly 160 attendees took part in the one-day event with picturesque views of the iconic Tokyo Tower and Mount Fuji. The event kicked off with a press conference with LLamasoft President and CEO Don Hicks as he... Read More
February 2, 2017 |
The Limitations of Traditional Supply Chain Planning Systems
Every large global company has implemented enterprise planning systems to help keep their supply chains running, and research shows that billions of dollars are spent each year on upgrades and new implementations of these planning systems. So why does nearly every company still do much of their actual “planning” using offline spreadsheets or rely on small groups of data scientists to provide critical insight and business analysis? Shouldn’t this be... Read More
January 19, 2017 |
Supply Chain Design 101
We at LLamasoft eat, sleep and breathe supply chain design every day and the largest and most successful companies leverage this technology to lead the pack. While more and more organizations adopt design every day, there are still a wealth of companies just learning about the huge gains they can net with design. How is design differentiated from planning and execution, how can I leverage the technology, and how can... Read More
January 4, 2017 |
The Year Ahead: 2017 Supply Chain Predictions
Although many people were surprised by the outcome of last year’s US presidential election, one thing that everyone could predict with certainty was that a new administration will take office this January, and with any new administration comes change and some amount of uncertainty. And for supply chain professionals, there are few words that are less welcome than “change” and “uncertainty”. Therefore, these two words/challenges make up the foundation of... Read More
December 21, 2016 |
2016: A LLamasoft Year in Review
While the LLamasoft team is already tirelessly at work on plans and activities for the New Year, we always like to take a quick look back at the year that preceded. 2016 did not disappoint for LLamasoft. Here are few highlights. Winter On January 1 LLamasoft officially acquired the supply chain solutions product suite from Barloworld Logistics. We were happy to welcome 100 new employees to the LLamasoft team. With... Read More
December 7, 2016 |
Design Trumps Uncertainty: Leveraging Supply Chain Design to Thrive in Uncertain Times
LLamasoft has long touted the importance of supply chain resiliency in the face of any unforeseen risk and with volatility and constant change becoming a “new normal” for global business, this need is more prominent than ever. The tumultuous global political landscape has brought renewed focus on supply chain preparedness as businesses consider the implications of potential regulatory changes. Just as we encouraged our customers to re-evaluate their supply chains... Read More
November 23, 2016 |
Digital Divas Trip Report: Educating for a Better Future
On a recent Friday morning the halls of the Eastern Michigan University Student Center were filled with excited chatter. A group of young girls wearing matching robotics club T-shirts added their names in colorful sharpies to a banner already adorned with the names of almost one hundred other young women in front of the student auditorium. Over three hundred middle school girls and their chaperones excited for what the day... Read More
November 9, 2016 |
Hanjin Troubles and the Importance of Supply Chain Responsiveness and Preparedness
The logistics industry has seen its fair share of disruptions over recent years between port strikes, driver shortages and natural disasters. Another such story emerged in recent weeks as a Hanjin shipping vessel spent months sitting off-shore near the Price Rupert port in British Columbia after the financial collapse of the logistics giant. With 800 crates on-board, goods were left sitting off-shore unable to reach consumers and therefore not netting... Read More
October 19, 2016 |
Don’t Let Your Data Hold You Back: Five Ways to Simplify Your Supply Chain Design with Analytics
Access to data is increasing in nearly every field, including supply chain design. In fact, collecting and leveraging that data is often cited by supply chain professionals as one of the biggest challenges facing their organization. Whereas in the past modelers dealt with spreadsheet sized datasets, they now have access to tera-sized data lakes. This growth has brought much success to supply chain designers allowing them to develop deeper and... Read More
October 11, 2016 |
Trip Report: Innovation and International Supply Chain Best Practices – Medellín 2016
On September 15 at the Museum of Modern Arts of Medellín in Medellín, Colombia, LLamasoft hosted the Innovation and International Supply Chain Best Practices event. The meeting gathered logistics and supply chain experts from more than 60 companies spanning industries. The goal of the event was to gather international experts to share strategies and best practices that the largest global companies use while facing supply chain crises and challenges, all... Read More
September 28, 2016 |
Are greenhouse gas emissions going to become more important in supply chain design?
In the mid-2000s climate change moved up the list of business priorities and supply chain professionals began to take note. Then came the global financial crisis and most people’s attention moved towards the bottom line and corporate survival. A number of recent developments indicate that greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions is moving back up the business agenda, and the impact on supply chains could be significant. On September 3 China and... Read More
September 14, 2016 |
CSCMP Preview: How HP and Other Leading Organizations Overcome Risks
I often use words like “volatility” and “change” to describe a key challenge facing today’s supply chain professionals. This constant flux has become the new normal. When bringing up the topic of supply chain risk, many people immediately go to examples of natural disasters like floods or hurricanes, but organizations face the threat of risks from a wide range of sources, from port strikes and driver shortages, to government regulations... Read More
August 31, 2016 |
The Supply Chain Benefits and Challenges for Subscription-Based Meal Kits
Millions of consumers are flocking to subscription-based meal kits as a means of simplifying the at-home dining experience. And as a member of one-such service myself, the convenience is not lost on me. But as a professional working in the supply chain technology industry, I can’t help but wonder as I open up my box of organic pea shoots, Chilean sea bass and mango remoulade, how on Earth are they... Read More
June 30, 2016 |
SummerCon 2016 Trip Report – Part 2
As you saw in my SummerCon Trip Report – Part 1, SummerCon 2016 got off with a bang! And Thursday the activities kept rolling with case study sessions in the morning and keynotes in the afternoon followed by a party of epic SummerCon proportions. Case Studies GM Vijay Bharadwaj and Andrea Budzynski of General Motors kicked the morning off with a session titled, “Building a Global Center of Excellence for... Read More
June 29, 2016 |
LLamasoft SummerCon 2016 – Takeaways from a Supply Chain Professional
Today we’re bringing you a guest blog from Hilary Grosskopf, CSCMP Young Professional and Transportation Operations and Analytics Leader at Restoration Hardware and SummerCon 2016 attendee. As a supply chain professional, I like to consider myself as a pretty skilled planner. I often say to my team, “let’s plan the work and then work the plan”. However, I left SummerCon inspired to “unleash” my creativity and try a different approach... Read More
June 22, 2016 |
SummerCon 2016 Trip Report – Part 1
Last week the LLamasoft team was thrilled to welcome 400 customers to New Orleans for a week of training, new product demos, networking, interesting case study sessions, inspiring keynotes and, of course, a little bit of fun. SummerCon celebrated its sixth birthday this year and it was not to be missed! Pre-Conference Training Monday and Tuesday brought nearly half of the attendees down to the Big Easy for two days... Read More
May 25, 2016 |
Brexit: Do You Know the Impact on Your Supply Chain and Optimisation?
On June 23, 2016 the citizens of the UK will vote whether to stay in or leave the European Union. Politicians are discussing the merits of pooled sovereignty, democratic deficits and the impact on the role of the UK and EU on world geo-politics. Economists are speculating on the impact on growth and employment for the economies of the countries in the EU, or indeed of the whole world. One... Read More
April 16, 2016 |
Test Outcomes Using Simulation Technology
Utilize network modeling and simulation together to test different courses of action to mitigate risk and unplanned events and evaluate contingency plans. The Supply Chain Guru network simulation engine enables users to test supply chain designs to make sure they will function as planned in the face of real world variables and business needs. Based on the same supply chain model used for optimizing the network, LLamasoft network simulation software... Read More
March 16, 2016 |
Warehouse Inventory Optimization
In addition to understanding pre-build or pre-buy inventory in LLamasoft Supply Chain Guru, users may wish to understand safety stock and cycle stock impacts for warehouse inventory management. The Supply Chain Guru incorporates multi-echelon safety stock optimization as well as product flow optimization, to help users understand SKU-level impacts of safety stock and cycle stock costs for inventory planning. Companies can also use simulation technology to predict the service rates,... Read More
March 15, 2016 |
Order Execution: A Vital Component of Improving Demand and Supply Planning Activities—Don’t Entrust it to Spreadsheets
Replenishment order calculation is fundamental to the success of supply chain planning. You need to quickly incorporate data from cross-functional, global demand planning processes and inputs from finance and procurement as well as inventory policies. Using Optimiza order execution, you can simplify this complex process and move away from spreadsheet-based tools and subjective decision-making. Focusing on both the inbound and outbound orders, Optimiza takes into account all internal and external... Read More
March 9, 2016 |
Trip Report – European Supply Chain Directors Forum
I recently attended The European Supply Chain Directors Forum in Prague, an invitation-only event that connects senior-level supply chain professionals from throughout Europe to discuss emerging industry trends and issues. The event brings together a number of members from the manucoreCONNECT community for two days of debate, interaction, networking and thought leadership. The focus of this year’s conference was Transformation, Culture and Collaboration. Here are a few key takeaways from... Read More
March 2, 2016 |
Coupling Art with Science in Supply Chain Design to Overcome Major Disruptions
Supply chains come in all varieties depending on their structure and organization, but even the most simple supply chains are inherently complex. That complexity, coupled with the multitude of disruptions and unplanned events of our world, can quickly derail a global supply chain. Most companies dedicate numerous resources to combat these disruptions, which also vary by industry, but here are several examples that nearly every business will have to address... Read More
February 24, 2016 |
Amazon in Brick and Mortar: The Retailer’s First Move into Omni-channel
In late fall Amazon announced they were diving into traditional retail by opening their first stores. In January, the first Amazon Books store opened in Seattle. Amazon has announced plans to open 300-400 other bookstores across the nation. But are bookstores really the only focus for Amazon in this new effort? And why is this ecommerce giant now moving to an old model that by some accounts is a dying... Read More
February 20, 2016 |
Accurate Inventory Levels are the Key to Balancing Supply and Demand
Does your business still swing between periods of high and low inventory depending on business priorities? Smart inventory planning determines the optimal quantity and timing of inventory and aligns it with sales and production capacity. Your job is to empower and your teams to regularly review safety stock levels and amend policy parameters to provide the elasticity required to yield the quickest return. AgustaWestland Uses Optimiza to Identify and Redistribute... Read More
February 18, 2016 |
Trip Report: SMC3’s Jump Start Conference
In January I attended Jump Start, SMC3’s annual conference, this year held in Atlanta. SMC3 is a long-time partner of LLamasoft and their annual conference gathers together representatives of nearly 300 shippers, trucking companies, third-party logistics providers, and technology companies to discuss the latest tech trends and examine trucking industry challenges on the horizon. There were many break-out sessions on a wide range of topics including a great session from... Read More
February 17, 2016 |
Our Take: The Post-Holiday Retail Inventory Strategy Reset
Every year, like clockwork, within the first few weeks of the New Year stories trickle in about retailers’ inventory fiascos during the busy holiday shopping season. This year was no different, from big box stores to shoe and other specialty retailers, many faced challenges implementing the right inventory strategy to carry through the industry’s busiest and most profitable season. Arguably the worst thing that can happen to a brick and... Read More
February 16, 2016 |
Transportation Route Planning Software
LLamasoft Transportation Guru transportation network design software is an ideal tool not only for network optimization and simulation, but for route scheduling as well. You are able to compare optimal multi-stop routes to less-than-truckload shipment costs to find ideal mode mix for your fleet routes. You can use this route optimization software to develop alternate routes based on various vehicle sizes and carriers, and designate vehicle routes as round-trip or... Read More
February 15, 2016 |
Managing Excess Maintenance and Repair Costs while Covering Overall Demand
The aerospace and defense industry is affected by a changing business environment; shrinking budgets, changing acquisition models, globalization and increasing customer demand. The industry is faced with increased pressure to create sustainable results for equipment uptime while delivering improved financial performance to the bottom line. Increased service issues, often a direct result of inefficient supply chains, has resulted in enormous cost overruns, delayed product rollouts and missed delivery dates. Many... Read More
January 27, 2016 |
Trip Report: The NRF Big Show 2016
Every January the National Retail Federation hosts the retail industry’s biggest tradeshow of the year, aptly called “The Big Show” at the Javits Center in New York City. Thousands of retailers, technology vendors, and supply chain professionals provide thought leadership on the current and proposed future state of the industry. The quantity and quality of powerful presentations is massive, but there were pervailing themes that resonated throughout. Here are a... Read More
January 16, 2016 |
Creating a Supply Chain Design Center of Excellence (CoE)
Establishing an Internal CoE Expands the Benefit of Supply Chain Modeling Enterprise-Wide Some of the best-run supply chains in the world are making supply chain design a core business function, and using this competency as a competitive weapon for their business. They are establishing internal supply chain design centers of excellence which utilize modeling technology to continuously optimize the end-to-end supply chain and stay ahead of other companies in their... Read More
January 16, 2016 |
Logistics Optimization Software and Tools
Simplified Logistics Optimization and Simulation In the past, network design initiatives were performed every one to three years to help a company realign its manufacturing and distribution center locations and minimize transportation costs. These logistics optimization projects could take four to six months or longer, and model accuracy was limited by the need to limit the number of products and sites. Logistics Optimization: Supply chain design is now an essential... Read More
January 15, 2016 |